It's quiet time on this Thursday

Assalamu alaikom wa rahmatullah,
I'm happily enjoying some quiet time here at my house this afternoon.  Each child is in his/her room reading in bed and I'm on the couch with a cup of coffee, my laptop, and a full basket of clothes waiting to be folded.  But I'll just pretend that basket isn't mine for the next few minutes.  The house is calm, and I hear the whirrs of the fans trying their best to cool off our rooms.

I came back from the library earlier with a few new books for each child to read over the next week or two.  While I do let them pick out lots of books on their own, I also feel it is my job to select a few for them.  They don't know what are 'good' books to pick a lot of the time, so I make sure they get to read the real gems for their grade level.  Our library (and I'm sure most have this, too) has a few binders at the desk in the Children's Room with sections and categories full of lists.  Some are arranged by awards earned, some by grade level, and some by other 'official' titles I can't remember right now.  So I often go to the binder marked Young Readers and go to the grade level I'm searching for.  I just go pick a few books from those lists, and the kids usually like them! Ta da.  We not only cover the classics, but we find books that we otherwise wouldn't have known to look for.  As for nonfiction, we do read a whole lot of those during the school year, so for now I don't mind if they hang out with fiction books till we we start back again.

A checkout lady at WalMart yesterday asked how the kids were behaving over the summer.  I realized again how it doesn't differ for me anymoe.  My kids and I are going about life together regardless of the school calendar.  It's really neat, different, and surely challenging at times, but that's ok.  The older kids have found their way.  They know what chores are expected of them (and when), they have books to read, games that they play alone and together, and other things like puzzles and board games.  Our day fills up nicely, alhamdullah, and we go out to the library, to friends, and to extra curricular activites most days.  The biggest challenge is little 2yr old Aisha.  That little monkey knows how to get into trouble before you can blink your eye.  She's really enjoyed a few new activities, though, these past two weeks.  One is activity is using finger paints ( I buy the Crayola brand. They do not stain at all and are a piece of cake to wipe up)  She uses a brush and paper. She's like my other kids and gets grossed out at stuff touching her fingers, so she uses a brush.  For the water can, I have saved some cans that's I've used for cooking.  I just make sure that when I take the lid off I do it in a clean sweep so that nothing pokey is left.  I give her the one that the tomato paste comes in b/c it is so small!  I keep a few in our art area for the big kids to use too.

 The other thing she loves to do is play in the texture box.  It's a tub (a little small, but I didn't feel like buying another plastic tub so I used what I had) that I've filled with dry rice and some green split peas.  She gets out my measuring cups and goes to town 'cooking'.  Like I said above, she doesn't care for things to touch her fingers and hands, so she doesn't really sink her hands in there, but she does feel the rice a little.  My older girls love to sink their hands in the bucket! It does feel good.  You have to expect a mess, but there are ways to minimize. I use it either on a beach towel like the one she's on in the picture below, or I put it on the kitchen table which has a tablecloth that can be shaken out.  Either way, I can shake most of it out when they're done.  I still have to sweep or vacuum when they're done.  That's ok, they really love it and it takes up a good chunk of time.

So that's what we're up to right now.  WalMart has washable Crayola markers for $0.40!  Their school supplies deals are irresistable!